M. Suzanne Terry

My project this October is going to be 31 Days of Shelfies. A shelfie, as defined by MacMillan Dictionary, is  “a picture which is taken, usually by a smartphone or a similar device of somebody with a bookshelf or bookshelves behind them,” or just a picture taken of bookshelves. I am going to take broader liberties and define shelfie as “any picture I take that has a shelf in it.”

Don’t worry – it’s not just going to be shelves. Not that there would be anything wrong with that.

The way I usually put together a blog post is to write the post and then find or take a picture to complement the post. This month, I am practicing the reverse. I am writing posts from photo prompts. Picture-taking (and the visual arts in general) don’t come naturally to me, but that doesn’t mean I can’t improve what tiny skills I have. This month, I am going to practice taking better pictures and noticing what makes each picture better. This month, my content will be at the mercy of my pictures.

These photos (and their subsequent posts…ideally) will fall into four basic categories:

1. A bookshelf + me. I thought of doing just 31 days of selfies, but I couldn’t get excited about it. I don’t really understand selfies. I mean, I support other people’s choice to take them for whatever reason they want to do so. But for myself, I’m usually left thinking, “Why?”  Unless there’s something new that I’m doing with my hair or something I’m wearing, I look pretty much the same as I did the last time I took a picture. People know what I look like. They don’t need a daily selfie from me, and I don’t require it for myself. But myself plus a bookshelf? I can make that interesting.
2. A bookshelf by itself. Who knows where this will lead? I anticipate that I will be writing book reviews and telling stories about specific books that have meant something special to me.
3. Friday five – a stack of five different books each Friday that I have read or am reading and why I recommend them.
4. Non-book shelves. Because books – while wildly important – are not the only things in life. On the weekends, I will be showing other shelves to remind myself to take my nose out of the books every once in a while.

I hope you enjoy it!

Master list of posts:

1. Master page (this one)
2. Friday Five: Five Favorite Stories From Childhood
3. Cape Cod Shelf
4. Warmth and Well-Being
5. Banned Books
6. Sweet Valley High
7. The L Shelves
8.  My Books
9.  Friday Five: Five Books on Moving
10. Fandom Friends
11.  In Defense of TV
12. Cooking for One
13. Manners!
14. Have Food, Will Travel
15. Happy Hour
16. Friday Five – Five Favorite Food Writers
17. Homebody
18. (break)
19. Hanging out with Allende
20. Virtual Shelfie
21. Schooling
22. For the Love of Libraries
23. Friday Five – Five Voices that Shaped Me
24. Memories and Inspiration
25. Reformation Sunday
26. Friends of the Library – Fort Worth
27. Read This Next
28. The Play’s the Thing
29. Language
30. Friday Five – Five Books That Have Changed Me
31. Acknowledgements